String Cheese Incident

The Kings Theatre Brooklyn NY

August 14 2016

By Miles Hurley

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The Kings Theatre is something to see as much it is to hear: I don’t think anybody strolling in there for the first time, like myself Sunday night, could help but gawk at the insanely gorgeous interior.

As mind-blowingly lavish as the building was, the theatre floor was imbued with a different kind of beauty, swirling with rainbow color and immediate motion of a String Cheese crowd (the best kind of crowd around). The theatre is a prime venue sound and environment wise, and so it all made for a truly beautiful String Cheese Incident tour closer-on top of the crazy good performance, of course!

Interestingly, Valley of the Jig began the night with an outright electronic vibe, but also quickly morphed into an greatly improvised, headier jam off the bat. A fantastic start.

En route to the show tonight I actually remember hoping for a Black and White, so when they jumped right into it for song two I was stoked – and it boiled up into a very lovelight-esque jam, for an early on high point in the night.

After a breather through Yo Se and the newer Farther, Stop Drop and Roll revved things up in the audience really well, and then Round the Wheel, certainly one of the major tunes for Cheese lovers, sent them overboard when they switched into it next. After it’s usual feel-good waters, some really snappy keyboard work from Kyle helped lead the jam into a full-on, disco-groove ending to set one.

A fine, fine Desert Dawn opened set two, stomaching inside it a unique jam, one that drew back into a slower, deeper psychedelic crawl to start before Get Tight, one of the band’s newest, which was performed just nicely.

Speaking a little on Peach, Nershi introduced blues guitarist Scott Sherard, who was a part of the Allman Family Incident, to the stage.

A bluesy Hot’Lanta grew into another subdued but awesomely improvised jam, and it was something to see this Sherard lock-in effortlessly into this explorative Cheese work. On The Road proper was oh-so-brief but definitely quickly turned on the burners, for a funnel into a downright fiery Southbound. While the next segue into Southbound was just the tiniest bit awkward, the energy and heat sparking off this rocker showed that the spirit of Allman music was truly flowing through cheese veins this weekend. Sherard really did well, as he had a couple awesome moments of extended solos.

Way Back Home was easy going, but heading into Whiskey Before Breakfast, Nershi delighted with several minutes of prime acoustic picking. Then, finally, one of the top show moments for me was the sharp, whole-band switch for a 180 into Kashmir, which was gloriously heavy-handed, and nicely sounding.

Cool down bluegrass encores with Cheese are great-there’s a friendly sort of charm to how they pick tunes like hobo song and Honky Tonk Heroes, the first two extras. But then the final send off encore of Rosie was not far lacking in comparison to any other jam of the night! A nicely extended, crispy-funky finish to a truly terrific closing night for String Cheese.

Setlist

Set I:

Valley of the Jig

Black and White >

Yo Se

Farther

Sweet Spot,

Stop Drop Roll

Round the Wheel

Set II:

Desert Dawn

Get Tight

Rain

Hot ‘Lanta

On the Road >

Southbound

Way Back Home >

Whiskey Before Breakfast >

Kashmir

Encore:

Hobo Song

Honkey Tonk Heroes

Rosie

To Submit a review or story for consideration hit us at [email protected]

Check out the Live Music News and Review.com Facebook page for updates and announcements.

For a full gallery of photos from this show, click here.